Steve Tibbetts - Big Map Idea '1989

Tracks list

Tracklist

01 - Black Mountain Side
02 - Black Year
03 - Big Idea
04 - Wish
05 - Station
06 - Start
07 - Mile 234
08 - 100 Moons
09 - Wait
10 - 3 Letters, Part 1
11 - 3 Letters, Part 2
12 - 3 Letters, Part 3

personnel : 

Steve Tibbetts - guitars, dobro, kalimba, pianolin, tapes
Marc Anderson - percussion
Marcus Wise - tabla
Michelle Kinney - cello

Steve Tibbetts is the thinking-mans guitar player whose music spans a host of
influences -- folk, jazz, rock, ethnic, modern classical -- without being bound
by any of them. Opening with a tabla-driven folksy cover of Led Zeppelins Black
Mountain Slide, the album leads us through a collection of original pieces
written by Tibbetts and his band members that are full of rich tone colors and
inventive rhythms. His main instrument is acoustic guitar, but he also uses
guitar synth, dobro, kalimba and something called a pianolin, while his
colleagues add tabla, cello, steel drums and assorted percussion. The percussion
creates a neo-primitive feel, with the carefully layered instruments often
building up to an intense cacophony of refined fury. Sometimes lush, sometimes
sparse, this music slips and slides between moods and styles. The crown jewel of
the album is the 11-minute final track 3 Letters, where he splices in the sounds
of chanting monks, Tibetan horns and cymbals, and childrens voices he recorded
on a trip to Nepal. Meanwhile cello, acoustic guitar, guitar synth, kalimba,
tabla and assorted percussion come and go in a dizzying collage of
impressionistic sounds.

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